GIS technology helps water management professionals develop solutions to water resource problems and assess water quality, determine water availability, prevent flooding, understand the natural environment, and manage water resources.

For example, by modeling how water behaves, scientists can determine how to safely provide service to communities around the world, which is increasingly important in countries that face increasing populations and a limited water supply. Water models enable hydrologists to analyze and study land characteristics, watershed delineation, topographic characteristics, floodplain areas, and other crucial information that leads to a clean water supply.

Many data sources are required for hydrologists to thoroughly assess water quality and needs while considering environmental factors. GIS acts as a support tool for hydrologic modeling by providing standardized GIS data sets for land cover, soil properties, gauging station locations, and climatic variables that can be analyzed and distributed. Not only does this information help planners determine how to allocate water resources and protect water quality, it also helps them predict possible problems before they occur.

GIS technology also enables water utility organizations to organize, manage, and distribute geographic information from various databases while maintaining data integrity and focusing on project directions.

For more information, visit www.esri.com/water.